View full sizeJohn Kuntz, The Plain DealerJimmy Dimora peaks out the window of the entrance doors of the Carl B. Stokes federal court house waiting for his ride after pleading not guilty to additional charges in October 2011.

For the next three months, the public-corruption trial of former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora is expected to produce explosive testimony, larger-than-life characters and tales of salaciousness seldom heard in a Northeast Ohio courtroom.

As the trial unfolds in U.S. District Court in Akron, federal prosecutors will probably present testimony from Dimora's friends-turned-snitches, plus dozens of his secretly recorded phone calls, offering a rare peek into backroom politics and what are cast as shady business deals in embarrassingly blunt and profane language.

How Dimora's bombastic, back-slapping personality plays to the jurors -- some of whom could hail from rural Carroll, Holmes, Tuscarawas or Wayne counties -- could determine whether he walks out of court a free man or is convicted of crimes that could send him to prison for more than 20 years.

"The jury is not supposed to infer illegal conduct from someone being coarse or crude or worse, but that is going to be the backdrop of the entire trial," said Geoffrey Mearns, the provost at Cleveland State University and a former federal prosecutor. "It will be interesting to see how the defense tries to neutralize that and to get the jury to feel some type of sympathy.

"It's a tough case."

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday and testimony on Jan. 9.

Jurors' reaction to Dimora an unknown

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Background on the trial

Dimora and his former friend and political sidekick, ex-County Auditor Frank Russo, were the primary targets of a four-year FBI investigation into public corruption in the county. Federal prosecutors have arrested or convicted nearly 60 elected officials, public employees and contractors in what has become one of the country's largest corruption investigations of local government.

Two judges and several others implicated in the investigation have already taken their chances with jury trials. All but one, a contractor, were convicted of corruption-related charges. But none was as well-known -- or beloved -- as Dimora. At the height of his power, he served as both a county commissioner and chairman of the county's Democratic Party, and his many fans greeted him as if he were a rock star.

Whether that star appeal will sway jurors in neighboring Summit County remains to be seen. Also to be seen is whether defense lawyers will put their client on the stand and risk exposing the jury to an uncensored version of the Jimmy Dimora show, including agitated railings against the federal government and other perceived enemies.

While still in office, he suggested that the FBI's corruption investigation was the result of a conspiracy involving the U.S. Justice Department, the Republican Party and The Plain Dealer. And he has remained defiant, from the day in July 2008 when agents raided his county office and Independence home, to March of this year, when federal prosecutors filed new charges branding him as a crime boss.

According to information contained in a 37-count, 148-page indictment, Dimora operated his county commissioner's office as a criminal enterprise. He defrauded the public and sold his office to enrich himself and his friends, prosecutors said. After he became aware he was under investigation, he attempted to cover his tracks by soliciting forged, backdated invoices for work at his home, prosecutors say.

The indictment accuses Dimora of receiving bribes and kickbacks, trips, home improvements and appliances, meals, entertainment, jewelry, lodging and prostitutes. In exchange, the charges state, Dimora steeredgovernment contracts, grants and loans, jobs and pay raises. He's also accused of fixing court cases and favoring his benefactorsin dealings with the county.

Dimora will stand trial with a co-defendant, Michael Gabor, 52, of Parma, a former office assistant in the auditor's office. He is accused of bribery and conspiracy, including a charge that he tried to pay a judge $10,000 to fix his divorce case.

Dimora and Gabor deny the allegations.

Defense strategy has potential to backfire

Dimora has rejected a plea deal. His defense against the charges appears to be that he simply was doing favors for friends who were happy to give him gifts and that he didn't expect anything in return, according to court documents, hearing testimony and legal experts.

The father-and-daughter defense team of William and Andrea Whitaker may argue to the jury that Dimora was acting on friendship, that the gifts he received were isolated incidents, and that any links between gifts and favorable treatment were circumstantial, Mearns said. But if the prosecution presents evidence for 2 1/2 months that establishes a clear pattern of illegal favors in exchange for official actions, that defense strategy could backfire, he said.

And testimony from Russo, Dimora's onetime pal, could figure prominently in prosecutors' attempts to establish that pattern.

Russo previously pleaded guilty to 21 corruption-related charges and is assisting federal officials in an attempt to reduce a 22-year prison sentence. He has remained free in anticipation of testifying as the key prosecution witness against Dimora.

"The element of drama and tension when Russo takes the stand will be palpable and extraordinary," Mearns predicted. "The odds are that Russo's testimony will be of substantial benefit to the prosecution."

Federal prosecutors run a risk, though, of offending the jury if Russo fails to admit his own criminal activity, thus losing credibility, Mearns said. Assistant U.S. attorneys Ann Rowland and Antoinette Bacon also must maintain a safe distance from Russo, he said.

"They have to make it clear that Russo is here because he's a friend of Dimora, not a friend of Ann Rowland," Mearns said.

Defense team trying every angle

Related Plain Dealer coverage

Lewis Katz, a professor at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law and an expert on criminal law, has been following the Dimora case closely. Rowland and Andrea Whitaker are both former students of his.

"It's going to be tough sledding for the defense," Katz said. Federal investigators "treated it like an onion. They unpeeled it leaf by leaf."

Katz said that from what he knows of the charges, the accusations against Dimora are "fairly small potatoes" compared with the crimes unearthed in recent public-corruption trials in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.

"But from my perspective, any corruption is too much corruption," Katz said. "Whatever they got against Dimora may add up to something."

Dimora's lawyers are grasping at every conceivable advantage. For instance, they have asked Judge Sara Lioi to ban prosecutors and witnesses from using what they consider to be loaded words such as corruption, kickbacks, bribery and "political godfather" in reference to Dimora. They have argued that court-ordered limitations on the words could help to temper the "inflammatory nature" of the testimony and prevent the jury from feeling unfair prejudice against Dimora.

"The continued use of the phrase 'Cuyahoga County public corruption investigation' and the reference to Mr. Dimora as a 'corrupt commissioner' before he was tried in a court of law demonstrate that the danger these terms will be used at trial by the government or witnesses exists," the Whitakers wrote in a court filing.

Rowland has dismissed such assertions.

"There is nothing about the term 'political godfather' that is inherently prejudicial or inflammatory," Rowland wrote in a motion in opposition. "Dimora wielded tremendous political power in the county during the time he solicited and accepted bribes."

She scoffed at the prospect of being prevented from using the word "corruption" in a corruption trial, but joked with the Whitakers during a recent court hearing.

"We agree not to use the word bribe if they agree not to use the words gift or friend," Rowland said.

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